The last trace of internationally renowned filmmaker Ritwik Kumar Ghatak has been erased in Rajshahi as the authorities of a homeopathic college demolished the rest of his ancestral home in the city鈥檚 Miapara area.
Earlier in December 2019, Rajshahi Homeopathic College and Hospital authorities started demolishing the filmmaker鈥檚 ancestral home but had to move back after filmmakers and cultural activists had staged protests for declaring it a heritage site and establishing a memorial museum on the premises as done with legendary actress Suchitra Sen鈥檚 ancestral house in Pabna.
During a visit to the site on Wednesday, this correspondent found the ancestral home demolished and labourers working to gather all the bricks of the one-storey building at a place in order to remove them.
Shamim Mia, the contractor who was given the task of demolishing the home and removing its bricks, told reporters that he was informed that the front wall of the old home was vandalised by the students on August 6, one day after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina had resigned and fled the country on August 5.
鈥楾he college authorities then asked me to demolish the rest of the home. We have been working to make the whole place clear for the past three days,鈥� he said.
Anisur Rahman, principal of Rajshahi Homeopathic College and Hospital, however, said that a group of students demolished the home on August 06 evening.
鈥榃e have been clearing the place to set up an outdoor patient department of the hospital with the permission of district additional deputy commissioner for education and ICT, Mohinul Islam,鈥� Anisur said.
On information, members of Ritwik Ghatak Film Society who have been trying to protect the home as a world heritage for long, rushed to the college and locked into an altercation with the college authorities.
鈥楾he college authorities are saying that it was the students who demolished Ritwik鈥檚 ancestral home. But nothing was vandalised at the college. I think the home was demolished in a pre-planned way,鈥� said Annaba Kabir Prokritee, one of the organisers of Ritwik Ghatak Film Society.
Liberation war information collector Waliur Rahman Babu, who also rushed to the demolished home, said that Ritwik鈥檚 father Suresh Chandra Ghatak鈥� a district magistrate, poet and playwright 鈥� owned the building.
鈥楩ormative years of the filmmaker鈥檚 life were spent at the house as he studied at Rajshahi Collegiate School,鈥� he added.
Later, Ritwik Ghatak Film Society members met with Rajshahi deputy commissioner Shameem Ahmed who instructed the college authorities not to remove anything from the demolished home.
He also assured them of protecting what remained at Ritwik鈥檚 ancestral home and investigating the incident as well as bringing those who vandalised and demolished the building to book.
According to the Ritwik Ghatak Film Society, Ritwik took part in meetings and cultural gatherings with litterateur Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay on the premises of Miapara Public Library adjacent to the house.
During the 1947 Partition of India, Ritwik had to migrate to India with his family and the authorities later declared his ancestral home 鈥榲ested property鈥�.
